Meet The Rockers Uptown
by subgirl
Summary: Rukia has never heard this kind of music before, and certainly not in this language. Ichigo attempts to translate without getting flustered by the implied themes. Predictably, he fails.


NOTES: Setting is in the generic pre-Soul Society arc. No real spoilers, assuming you've seen like the first two episodes / read the first volume. Rating is for one curse at the end.

CATEGORY: General, implied Ichigo x Rukia.

DISCLAIMER: Obviously I don't own the characters or the song referenced.

- - -

MEET THE ROCKERS UPTOWN

- - -

The window opens and Ichigo doesn't even bother to look up from his desk, where he is frowning angrily at his algebra homework.

"Ichigo," Rukia says in greeting as she steps through, landing with butterfly feet at the foot of his bed. He grunts noncommittally and she flops backwards onto his bed, slinging an arm over her eyes. A few moments of relative silence pass; the only sounds are the scratching of Ichigo's pen against paper. Eventually he grumbles in a frustrated way and Rukia can hear him get up from his desk. There is a surge of electricity and a quiet hiss of static. Ichigo goes back to his desk.

Suddenly, musical vocalising comes from nowhere. Rukia sits up like lightning, eyes popping open. She turns around, tense, to look at Ichigo.

He is watching her like she's insane.

Rukia stares back at him. "What is that?"

"What, you mean there isn't music in Soul Society?" he says incredulously.

"Of course there is." Rukia suddenly feels foolish. _But not like that,_ she thinks to herself, standing carefully and moving toward where the music is coming from. There is a small red light on the side of this flat, square-shaped machine, a spinning black disc on the top, and a metal arm hovering over it. Upon closer inspection, Rukia can see the metal arm has a thin 'finger' that is touching the disc as it spins.

"It's called a record player," says Ichigo flatly.

Rukia looks over her shoulder at him, mouthing the word silently. She then looks back at the machine. The music coming from it is slow and syncopated, with instruments she has never heard before. The voice is a young man's, and he's singing words she doesn't understand. Occasionally pops and hisses punctuate the song; Rukia wonders if that's part of the music.

"I can't believe I've never showed this to you," says Ichigo. Rukia looks at him again. "I guess I've been too preoccupied with Hollows and doing double the homework," he continues, gesturing wryly at his desk.

Rukia smiles tightly, moving back to sit uneasily on the edge of his bed. Ichigo keeps watching her. "I like it," she says finally.

Ichigo doesn't smile; the ever-present frown continues invading his expression. "Yeah? It's called dub. Augustus Pablo."

She looks at him. "Augustus Pablo."

"Yeah."

"What are the words?"

Only then does the frown disappear, albeit fleetingly; Ichigo looks like he is choking on something. "Th-the words?"

Now it's Rukia's turn to look at him like he's insane. "I can't understand them ..."

"They're English ..."

"Do you know English?" She says the word carefully.

"A little," he says, frown returning as he looks back to the algebra in front of him.

Rukia leans toward him, trying to catch his eye. "So? What is he saying?"

Ichigo coughs, shifting uneasily. "I don't know a lot. I might translate wrong."

"I don't care, stupid. Just tell me what you can hear."

Ichigo glares at her. "You ..."

"Somehow," says Rukia dryly, "I doubt words in any song would use that tone of voice."

Ichigo rolls his eyes, exasperated. "He's just saying, um ... just how he feels about this girl."

"Really?" says Rukia. "That doesn't seem very original. Even the songs in Soul Society are like that."

Ichigo shrugs. "It's a common theme ..."

Rukia tilts her head. "It sounds like he's saying more than that, though. Is that all?"

Ichigo scratches the side of his nose. "No ... he's saying ... how he feels about this girl, and also about how he'd feel if ... she, um, left ..."

Rukia now looks very interested. "Really?"

Ichigo arches an eyebrow at her, not liking what she is insinuating. "Yeah ..."

"And how would he feel, if she left?" she says, leaning forward.

Ichigo fidgets. "He, um ..."

"Does he say it would be the most devastating experience in his life, not to have her around?" she says, eyes round. And he realises she is teasing him.

"No, he says he would be _exceedingly grateful _to have her leave him alone. Because she's annoying and doesn't know when to shut up. And is _too short_." He folds his arms and stares out the window. Rukia says nothing. The song ends and the record continues spinning in silence. He bristles after a few seconds, finding the quiet to be too unnerving. "What! I told you what it says," he growls, looking at her. "So quit staring at me like that."

Rukia looks up at the ceiling. "You have no sense for poetry at all. Stupid."

"You're the idiot who asks for a translation and isn't satisfied with it."

She shrugs and stands up. "I would have translated it better."

"Wh-what do you mean, translated it better?" Ichigo seethes, watching her angrily as she moves toward his closet. "You can't even understand what it's saying."

Rukia opens the closet and steps inside. "There is no shame in not being _comfortable_ enough to be poetic," she says condescendingly. "But it is incredibly juvenile." She sits and looks at him.

Ichigo can barely contain his rage. "What right have you to call someone juvenile?" he growls. "You're _ten times_ my age."

She shrugs again. "Maybe. But _you_ are a child." She closes the door.

Ichigo briefly considers stomping over to the closet and locking it so she can't get out. Instead, still fuming, he stands up and shuts the record player off. "A child," he mutters angrily to himself. "The nerve of that ... that _bitch _..." Behind him, he can hear the closet door slide open.

"Ichigo," Rukia says.

He turns around and looks at her, jaw set, ready to resume the argument. Did she _hear_ him?

"_Nirokujichuu watashi wa inoru_."

She closes the door.

Ichigo's knees suddenly turn to rubber.

- - -

END

- - -

Kubotite really likes music, if you haven't noticed. This spawned from the idea that songfics are awful but fanfics influenced by songs are okay after all. The song I listened to over and over in an incessant loop during the writing of this is 'King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown'.

In the (likely) case you don't both understand Japanese (I don't) and know the song, Rukia is directly translating some of the lyrics. 'Night and day I pray that love will come my way'. Nirokujichuu night and day / all the time; watashi wa inoru I pray.

It just wouldn't make sense for her to say it in English, since you wouldn't be able to tell that she did in fact know what the song was saying. And also I LOVE MAKING THINGS MORE COMPLICATED THAN THEY NEED BE.


End file.
